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lizwisniewski's review against another edition
5.0
I loved these short stories. This was the type of read that has stayed with me for a long time. The whole tone of the book is very New Englandy and as usual with Hawthorne his focus is on the moral struggle of early Americans, with a strange gothic twist - one of my favorite books ever.
avieherman's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to like this and really did love the story "David Swan", but I just couldn't get through it and (I'm embarrassed to say) gave up... Maybe when I'm older I'll try again...
kurtwombat's review against another edition
5.0
As precious a book to me as there is. Each story gently folds back layer by layer revealing a hidden truth or fear or hope or love at it's heart. Though written in the early 1800's, the sense and perspective is not strictly masculine. Hawthorne inhabits and coveys both genders with equal delicacy and strength. Can be read as simple entertainment or left on the tongue to discern deeper flavors than readily apparent. Such a master of the short story form that to write anything longer seems a waste of time...until you read the Scarlet Letter or House of the Seven Gables...both wonderful and conveying the same majesty of narration and smooth drifting prose. Pity if we forget the masters.
bookishwendy's review against another edition
5.0
I read this collection one story a night over a couple of months, which is definitely the way to tackle it. While I can't say I loved every story in the collection, the compounded effect on my emotions was that of a rolling snowball that starts small, and by the bottom of the hill ends up taller than I am. Twice-Told Tales is...definitely taller than I am. And not just because I'm doubled over from the emotional gut punches.
The stories that didn't make my favorites lists tended to be more allegorical, sort of over-the-top moralizing fairy tales. Surprisingly (to me), I most loved the contemplative, observational slice-of life essays, particularly "Chippings with a Chisel" and "Foot-Prints on the Sand." I also enjoyed the (unexpected?) turns to humor in "A Rill from the Town Pump", "Mr. Higgenbotham's Catastrophe", and "David Swan". As a perennial fan of the gothic and macabre, I appreciated the hightened emotions and deft storytelling in "The Minister's Black Veil", "The Wedding Knell", "Lady Eleanore's Mantle", "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," and "Peter Goldthwaite's Treasure". Finally, the twists in "The Three-Fold Destiny" brought the collection to a fitting close.
Most of all, I appreciated recognizing the seeds of writerly obsession for Hawthorne's later novels. Definitely recommend this collection for sipping and savoring.
The stories that didn't make my favorites lists tended to be more allegorical, sort of over-the-top moralizing fairy tales. Surprisingly (to me), I most loved the contemplative, observational slice-of life essays, particularly "Chippings with a Chisel" and "Foot-Prints on the Sand." I also enjoyed the (unexpected?) turns to humor in "A Rill from the Town Pump", "Mr. Higgenbotham's Catastrophe", and "David Swan". As a perennial fan of the gothic and macabre, I appreciated the hightened emotions and deft storytelling in "The Minister's Black Veil", "The Wedding Knell", "Lady Eleanore's Mantle", "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," and "Peter Goldthwaite's Treasure". Finally, the twists in "The Three-Fold Destiny" brought the collection to a fitting close.
Most of all, I appreciated recognizing the seeds of writerly obsession for Hawthorne's later novels. Definitely recommend this collection for sipping and savoring.
greenrain's review against another edition
2.0
I've generally liked Hawthorne's short stories and novels, so I picked this up at a used bookstore hoping it would be similar. Unfortunately, this collection is heavy on the "sketch" and light on the "story." Hawthorne admits this in his introduction, so I feel somewhat guilty rating it so low. The slices of early American life are interesting and valuable, but I would recommend a very slow reading, maybe one story every other week while you read something more substantial.
judyward's review against another edition
4.0
I absolutely love Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories and strongly believe that they should be required reading for all students studying American literature. This is probably the fifth time that I have read this book and I always discover something new in it.
cub_jones's review against another edition
It would be uncharitable to say this first and oddly most famous collection of Hawthorne's is the master tuning his instrument, though Melville was correct, by and large, to call these stories slight. Hawthorne was always seductive, offering an always charming and warm direct address to the reader, a light but genuine friendliness while beguiling the reader to almost back into considering fates, consequences and a darkness as deep as Dante, but too many of these stories hum too quickly and agreeably over the surface of these depths for me to call this collection a major work overall.
It's not apprenticeship nor juvenalia, but like a half-unassuming, beautifully wrought prelude, a stirring offering tantalizing flashes of his depth and greatness to come. Answering Longfellow's call for more homegrown American literature, Hawthorne veers from charming though perilously slight and hokey Americana to the searing, doubting, troubling territory of his best work that offers stark glimpses of the evil endemic to the American project, though 1.) the former unfortunately outnumbers the latter and 2.) Hawthorne would likely see the latter as the evil of human nature rather than as the specific evil of whiteness and manifest destiny.
I count one masterpiece for the ages here, the enigmatic, singularly strange Wakefield, though there are a number of solid stories in between the more trivial ones--it's just that the ratio of great to mediocre is just a step below Mosses or The Snow Image and the overall depth is also comparatively lacking.
It's not apprenticeship nor juvenalia, but like a half-unassuming, beautifully wrought prelude, a stirring offering tantalizing flashes of his depth and greatness to come. Answering Longfellow's call for more homegrown American literature, Hawthorne veers from charming though perilously slight and hokey Americana to the searing, doubting, troubling territory of his best work that offers stark glimpses of the evil endemic to the American project, though 1.) the former unfortunately outnumbers the latter and 2.) Hawthorne would likely see the latter as the evil of human nature rather than as the specific evil of whiteness and manifest destiny.
I count one masterpiece for the ages here, the enigmatic, singularly strange Wakefield, though there are a number of solid stories in between the more trivial ones--it's just that the ratio of great to mediocre is just a step below Mosses or The Snow Image and the overall depth is also comparatively lacking.
princessleia4life's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't really like that many stories. The Prophetic Pictures story was amazing! Very Twilight Zone-esque.
daniy's review against another edition
3.0
2.5
Two or three of the tales were 5 stars, most were 2.5/3, and then a few really bad ones.
Two or three of the tales were 5 stars, most were 2.5/3, and then a few really bad ones.
dei2dei's review against another edition
3.0
I'd never read Hawthorne - I dodged 'The Scarlet Letter' in high school - and I'm surprised I never got around to this. Happy the Coursera class had this as reading!